


Speaking Clearly

by raendown



Category: Naruto
Genre: Bad Flirting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 01:03:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12947958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: Kakashi's style of communication leaves a lot to be desired. It also leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation. (Read: Kakashi can't flirt for shit)





	Speaking Clearly

In Obito’s defense, any person in their right minds wouldn’t have taken it as a compliment. All he could be blamed for was momentarily forgetting that Kakashi was not actually in his right mind. Ever. He was ten and the other boy was coming up on nine and most of their interactions tended to end loudly with frequent violence.

“You’re not totally useless,” Kakashi mumbled after he had beaten the older boy in the fourth spar in a row. Obito puffed up indignantly.

“What’s that supposed to mean!”

“It means you’re not a _complete_ idiot; you have at least _some_ use.”

“Hey screw you too, Bakashi!” Obito hitched up the sleeves of his jacket, ready to go in for round five.

He was confused when Kakashi threw both hands in the air with a grumpy mutter of, “Ugh! Never mind!” When his teammate stormed off all he could do was tilt his head to one side and blink in confusion. Kakashi was weird sometimes but Obito could usually tell what he’d done to piss the guy off. This time he had no idea.

*

Two years didn’t really change much between the two of them except perhaps add a little bit of distance and some new things to tease each other about. Kakashi made fun of Obito for constantly outgrowing his clothes and leaving his limbs hanging out. Obito retaliated by making fun of Kakashi’s lack of any growth spurts, leaving him forever the shortest on their team. Minato-sensei did his best to put out the fires that sprang up as they constantly rubbed each other the wrong way.

It was at twelve years old that Obito hit a milestone all shinobi must but few enjoy: his first kill. Only years later would he own up to the fact that it had actually been an accident. Really he had tripped and twisted himself as he fell, rather than executing a backwards roll to avoid a blow as it might have looked to the others. As his body went back and the enemy came forward, Obito’s arm came across at just the right angle to open the woman’s throat. He caught her look of dismayed shock for a split second before arterial spray covered the lenses of his goggles and he was left staring wide-eyed at a splatter of blood.

Rin was the one to lend him a handkerchief so he could shakily wipe the mess off his face. Minato-sensei rubbed his back and asked him in a steady voice if he was alright. It was nice to be treated so gently in that moment because Obito felt a little like glass that had cracked, weakened all over with the possibility of shattering at just the wrong touch.

“Well. Apparently your goggles are good for something after all.”

“Kakashi!” Minato-sensei clicked his tongue. “Now is not the time.”

“What? I was just saying–”

“Don’t be so mean, Kakashi!” Rin jumped in to defend her friend as well, adding her tsk to their sensei’s.

“I wasn’t!” Kakashi protested.

Rin only shook her head and gave him an exasperated look of disappointment. Kakashi growled in frustration and stormed off to throw himself down on the ground at the far edge of the clearing. No force on earth could get him to admit it but anyone could see that he was pouting. However, none of his teammates paid him the slightest bit of attention as Rin and Minato tended to the quivering Obito – and therefore none of them managed to see the way Kakashi craned his neck to see if their efforts were working.

*

Thirteen years of age brought Obito two things, a new appreciation for life and a friend he hadn’t even known he already had.

No one was sure which was the bigger miracle: that Kakashi managed to adapt so quickly to having a Sharingan implanted in his head or that the medical staff were able to repair Obito’s body enough that he would regain full function of all four limbs. Of course, he would live the rest of his life with horrific scaring over nearly 50% of his body, but even he agreed that it was a small price to pay for the ability to continue on with the path he had chosen in life. His career as a shinobi would be slowed only by his recovery time.

Jaws had dropped all across the village as the story spread about how Kakashi and Obito had both tried to sacrifice their lives for the other, especially whenever they were spotted around town bickering just the same as they always had. Despite the fact that Kakashi appeared glued to Obito’s side as he slowly stumped around on his crutches, and although they had both acknowledged the other as a true friend at last, that didn’t mean that either of them had magically changed personalities overnight.

“You got something to say about my face!?” Obito growled at his friend one day after Kakashi had stared at him for much too long in silence. Not intimidated in the slightest, Kakashi huffed.

“Hn. You got some of it in _my_ face.”

“Maybe I’ll just take that eye back then!”

“Just try it, Stumpy!”

Obito hollered and leaned on his good leg so he could lift his crutches to swing them at Kakashi’s head. The younger boy simply skipped nimbly out of the way and snorted in amusement. A more childish person his age would have danced around to taunt the other boy, showing off his mobility, but Kakashi had been striving to be seen as more adult since he was five years old and thought of himself as above that sort of behavior.

So instead he simply stuck his nose in the air, trying not to be obvious about the careful tilt of his head which allowed him to still keep his one eye cracked open so he could keep a watch on Obito.

“Whatever,” he shrugged. “You don’t look at all that different to me so its fine, isn’t it?” The older boy flared and waved his crutches even more wildly.

“Are you trying to say I was already ugly before I got these scars? Stupid Bakashi! Why do you have to be so mean! I’m injured; you’re supposed to be nice to injured people!”

“That – I didn’t _say_ that!”

Obito wasn’t listening. He continued to yell and gripe even long after Kakashi had dropped his face in to his hands with exasperation and hurried to walk ahead of his friend, out of hitting range. By the time they arrived at the dango stall where they were supposed to be meeting Rin both of them were scowling and she wondered what they could have possibly fought about in the three minute walk between here and the hospital.

*

At the ripe old age of fifteen years old Uchiha Obito achieved something that many in his clan had often told him would likely be impossible: he had achieved the rank of jōnin. With the war over field promotions had become less common and he’d had to take the exam like everyone else. Last year he had failed the psychological component but this year was different. This was the year that he made people look at him with respect.

Obito preened and blushed for the entire first hour of the surprise party his friends threw for him, thinking to himself that he couldn’t possibly imagine a single way for his night to get better. His own sensei, now the Hokage, had been the one to bestow him with his new rank. His former classmates, now trusted comrades, were all gathered around him at his favorite BBQ restaurant. Rin sat on his right side and Kakashi on his left, both of their thighs pressed tightly to his own as though if they only squished hard enough the three of them could become one single person. What more could a guy wish for?

For some reason, however, his own accomplishment was not what was on his mind now. Dinner had been finished a while ago and around the table there were several people just finishing dessert. Small groups held different conversations but Obito wasn’t contributing to any of them and neither was the younger boy to his left. Strangely, it was Kakashi that was on his mind.

It was something that he had begun to notice only a few months after the incident at Kannabi Bridge and still persisted to this day. Kakashi, he had noticed, only ever sat on Obito’s left side. He wouldn’t really have thought it odd were it anyone else; with his left eye missing, it was common for a lot of people to instinctively place themselves in his blind spot. That was what comrades did. The only trouble was that Kakashi kept his left eye covered as well to reduce the chakra drain from the implanted Sharingan and standing on that side left himself at a disadvantage as well. It would have been safer for him to stand on the right where he would be able to watch out for himself.

Displaying an uncommon amount of patience, Obito waited until everyone had left and he and Kakashi were walking home together as they usually did, then he blurted out his question with no thought for graceful phrasing.

“Why do you always stand on my left side?”

“Because you’re blind on the left side,” Kakashi answered promptly. Obito scrunched his nose.

“Yeah well so are you,” he pointed out. “Wouldn’t it be better for you to be on the right where you can see?”

“That would leave you open to attack.”

Obito huffed. For a genius, the other sure was being dense. “Sure but now you’re leaving yourself open to attack instead.” Kakashi only shrugged.

“I’m the stronger shinobi so it would be easier for me to survive an attack to my blind spot.”

“Are you calling me weak!? I’m a _jōnin_ now! I’m just as good as you are, you stuck up prick!”

With no further promoting Obito threw himself in to a long rant about how he hadn’t given up on his dream of being Hokage someday and how he was going to make Kakashi kiss his hat when that happened. He was so busy yelling that he never noticed the defeated sigh his friend gave, nor heard the tired murmur of, “That wasn’t what I said at all.”

*

At seventeen years old Obito’s life changed. Of course, his life had already undergone several large changes that had each seemed equally world-stopping at the time. Like all the others, he never even saw this one coming until it crashed down upon him – quite literally.

Bickering with Kakashi wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. To be perfectly honest if a day passed him by without a least one tiny spat with the younger teen Obito usually felt a little off kilter, like he had misplaced something. So walking home from a week-long mission, covered head to toe in dust and with Kakashi buzzing in his ear about something or other, he felt more ordinary than anything else. That didn’t stop him from snarling back when Kakashi implied something particularly offensive.

“Do you purposefully mishear me?” Kakashi demanded as they took a short cut through the alley behind their favorite teahouse. “That – wasn’t – what – I – said!”

“Of course it was!” Obito retorted. He was so used to the noise of disgust the other boy made that his brain filled in the visual of Kakashi throwing his hands in the air without even looking. He never expected for his shoulders to be shoved, turning him about to face his friend.

“No! It wasn’t! You never listen properly, Obi-brat, I was trying to say something else!”

“What then? How the hell was I supposed to take that other than you implying that I’m still slower than you at using jutsu?”

“You – I – would you just – _oh for kami’s sake_!”

In his wildest dreams Obito never could have predicted Kakashi’s reaction then. He flinched as the straps of his pack were grabbed in a tight grip and his body was shoved back against the wall of the alley. Expecting Kakashi to hit him in the face, he closed his eyes instinctively and braced for impact because as offended as he was he knew the other was actually right. He still wasn’t as fast with his hands as his teammate was.

Half a second later his eyes snapped back open in shock, staring hard at Kakashi’s closed eyelids and trying to process the fact that Hatake Kakashi was kissing him. Actually it was more like ravishing him. For some reason he couldn’t seem to make himself move, either, and so he simply stood still and let himself be thoroughly kissed by his best friend.

Amazingly, he could even see a line of deep red scrawled across the top of Kakashi’s mask when his friend finally pulled away, panting and scowling despite his blush.

“ _That_ is what I’ve been trying to say for fucking years now but you just don’t listen! You always misunderstand me and take what I say the wrong way! Baka! Brat! Too stupid to see your own best friend is in love with you! Why do I even like you?”

“You’re…you’re…EH!?”

“All I said was that your hand movements hadn’t improved as much as I thought they would. It was a simple observation, all I was trying to do was offer to help, and all you heard was an insult! Kami you are so freaking dense sometimes it makes me want to scream!”

“Hnngg!?” Obito frantically tried to locate his tongue and remember how to speak so he could say something – anything. He’d never heard Kakashi say so much at once nor speak so passionately about something, not unless he felt very strongly about the subject. Considering his choice of words for describing his feelings, it was apparent that he felt more than just strongly about this.

“I’ve been trying to get this in to your head since I was nine years old but all you ever think I’m doing is being mean. Is that all you see me as? A mean person who just insults you all the time? I try to help! I try to offer you compliments! But nooooo Uchiha Obito wouldn’t see a compliment even if it stripped naked and slapped him in his stupid face! Do you get it now, then? Huh? What about if I got up on the roof of the Hokage Tower and shouted it for the whole village to hear? Hey everyone! I’m in love with Obito and he’s never even noticed! It’s _fucking awesome_!”

Finally, Obito snapped. If his tongue wasn’t going to listen to him than he was going to have to let his actions speak for themselves. Not giving himself any time to second guess, he reached out and took hold of the straps of Kakashi’s pack like the younger boy had done to him, dragging him back in and cutting off the flow of words with a frantic kiss. Since it was only the second kiss he had ever experienced in his life, he really hoped he was doing it right.

Even if he wasn’t he had a feeling that Kakashi didn’t mind all that much. The sixteen year old let out an honest-to-kami whimper as he fell silent, using his body to press Obito farther in to the wall and framing his face with two pale hands. He was blushing even harder than before by the time the kiss was finished.

“Uh, sorry about that,” he murmured, ever so slowly stepping back. Obito raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah that was weird.” Kakashi’s entire body froze in place and Obito panicked, hurrying to correct himself. “No not the kiss! The kiss was awesome! Totally down for that! Just the yelling I mean, that was weird.”

“Really?” It was strange to hear Kakashi say anything such a small voice.

“Of course!”

“By ‘totally down’ do you mean you…I mean…could I…uhm…we…I know you always had a thing for Rin…don’t want to come between anything…”

Obito stared in awe as Kakashi slowly shrank down in to himself more and more the longer he continued to stammer. Just the fact that he was stammering at all was enough to blow the older teen’s mind, but the shyness threatened to overload him completely. If there was one thing Kakashi was not, it was shy. Although it took almost a full minute and his friend looked nearly ready to turn tail and run by the time he did, Obito finally got his brain back on track enough to speak again.

“I got over Rin years ago,” he pointed out softly. “So maybe we could, erm, go on a date sometime?”

“Really!?” Kakashi’s head snapped up and even through the mask it was obvious that his jaw had dropped with shock.

“Uh huh.” Now blushing himself, Obito shuffled his feet. “You could kiss me again first, though. I mean, if you want to or whatever.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sure.”

Despite his words, at first Kakashi only manage to stand there while the two of them stared at each other awkwardly. They were both blushing fiercely and it only worsened when he finally plucked up the courage to slowly lean forward, touching his masked lips to Obito’s much more gently this time. Either he gained confidence quickly or simply lost himself in the moment, but whichever it was it only took a few moments before he had brought their bodies close together again, standing well inside Obito’s personal space so their hearts were nearly beating against each other.

“So,” Obito murmured against his friend’s mouth. “This is kind of hard to misinterpret.” Kakashi huffed out a laugh.

“Took you long enough to get it,” he complained lightly.

“Not my fault. You are obviously _terrible_ at flirting.”

“Maybe if you didn’t jump to conclusions so easily–”

“You better shut up and kiss me again right now or I’m gonna start another fight and ruin the moment. Less bitchin’, more kissin’.”

Kakashi had to take the time to laugh first but he did listen for once in his life. Obito figured he could be satisfied with that for now.


End file.
